How to be a Good Coach

My good friend, Kevin Yu — from Taiwan, Taipei, poses a simple question, in that he wonders how one becomes a good coach. Hmmmmm…

Actually, this isn’t as difficult a question for me as readers might think, mainly because I’ve answered it hundreds of times before.

For sure, we could say that a good coach has to know the game, he or she has to try to keep up on the sciences of sport, the good coach has to be able to troubleshoot player or team problems as they arise, and could I ever list probably another dozen things he or she should be able to do.

With all that, I’ve always said that the first trait a truly good coach needs is to care.

Please think about what I’m saying here.

For, the caring coach goes about studying all I’ve mentioned above, and he or she does just about everything possible to do right by the kids in his or her charge.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of the opposite types out there working in American youth hockey circles today. They’ve taken a head coaching position (or even an assistant job) for selfish reasons, and they almost always opt for shortcuts instead of doing the things that would help their kids.

So again, the first trait a truly good coach needs is to care. After that, I believe everything else falls into place.